The world is getting smarter. It is on the news everyday. Our phones, computers, homes, cars, and all manners of other daily appliances are now programmed to do more of our thinking for us. Some of the biggest companies in America are technological start-ups turned mega-monolithic multinationals and those who jumped on the techno-bandwagon fast enough, no looking back (sorry, Borders).
However, although technology is now the focus of the future and capturing massive percentages of the market its expansion is limited by lack of talent. There are talent wars waged between the tech giants, such as Google and Facebook, and those with any level of technological proficiency are in high demand – and are some of the best-paid and best-treated employees in America.
So why is it that some of the biggest American companies are encountering personnel shortages, with continuing national unemployment rates more-or-less ball-parked at 9 percent? The answer is education.
Why More People Should Go to College
Today there is a higher-education identity crisis. What should higher education be doing? How is it failing America? Is a degree worthless? The humanities fare the worst in furious debates that question whether or not they should even be taught any more, or receive any funding. However, a recent report by Georgetown University should bring the observer of the higher education crisis into perspective.
It stated that, “the occupational clusters with the highest demand for workers with post-secondary education also tend to be those that are growing — actually adding new jobs in addition to replacement positions.” The “occupational clusters” are nine categories that encompass the majority of careers in the US. The categories that typically require a bachelor’s degree, such as information technology or health, also happen to be the fastest-growing occupations in the US (IT and health are the fastest-growing, at 23 percent and 21 percent respectively).
The report also summarized the future of occupations that require only a partial or full high school degree, and is careful to admit that these professions will not go away. However, they will shrink to a relatively measly percentage of available jobs come 2018 – about 37 percent. That is down from 72 percent in 1973, and 41 percent in the more recent 2007. It states, “The days of workers graduating from high school, nabbing a job in the mail room of a big company and then working themselves into a corner office are pretty much gone. in their place is a demanding economy that puts a premium on education, training, and flexibility.”
So college should not be counted out too soon, especially with new and more flexible digital courses available to more and more people, some programs surprisingly inexpensive. The fact is, whether it is demoralizing or not, that the way to a comfortable lifestyle does not necessarily need to include higher education, but that it a degree is not quite as worthless as some would like to make it out to be. In a smarter world, changing all the time, an education is the best way to keep up.